Jeremy Rowland wrote:Thanks Fred I am not at all surprised that the Foden chassis was purpose built the visual look of the crane is huge compared to the truck it is mounted on, reckon it would have crushed a standard chassis.

Jeremy

The all up weight was only 22tons, not too bad for an 8 wheeler. Looks like the axles are non standard? Perhaps the reduction type?

Pete looks like Foden's standard rear axle to me; I have forgotten now but they may just be a worm and wheel as opposed to a crown wheel and pinion?

[quote="modelman093"]That picture of the John Willment site in London is just so atmospheric of the time. I was living in London in the late fifties and even then similar sites were quite common as whole areas of war damage were still being cleared up and rebuilt. Contrast that with an image taken and posted on the Dover Sea Forum last week.

Hi, Here's another picture atmospheric of another time. The first job I did when I started work was to help change the radiator in one of those Fordson 7V tippers. Fred

Great pic - and the first wagon that I drove was an ex army O type Bedford tipper! The farmer that I worked for pre-college had several Os and an OB bus to collect the "potato gang" .The farm mechanic showed me how to adjust the tappets with the engine running using a long feeler strip and an open top tappet cover to allow access while keeping the oil in.

I've always referred to the square fronted ones as O types , but........ . The farmer that I worked for before going to college frequently bought vehicles at the huge government disposal sales at Ruddington or one of the intermediate dealers in military surplus. Another of his "buys" was a job lot of 15 Austin Champs .

All O Types with the semi forward control short bonnet - Civvy ones were OB's , wartime issue square fronts to civilians were OW ( pic 1) and military square fronts were OY ( 3 tonners). Lighter K 30cwt and M 3 ton types had a longer bonnet.The Bedford OY army 3 tonner played a major part in winning the war with 72,000 of this rock solid reliable model alone being built along with 170,000 other wartime trucks by Bedford .

This makes the reaction by Land Rover fans that it was a disgrace to sell Land Rover to Bedford trucks because they were foreign company in the 80s seem ridiculous but there was an absolute furore about it at the time with big ' Keep Land Rover British' demonstrations in London. Government took fright and sold Land Rover to British Aerospace .Shortly after GM pulled the plug and closed down Bedford trucks with a massive loss to the UK economy .

[quote="XS650"]All O Types with the semi forward control short bonnet - Civvy ones were OB's , wartime issue square fronts to civilians were OW ( pic 1) and military square fronts were OY ( 3 tonners). Lighter K 30cwt and M 3 ton types had a longer bonnet.The Bedford OY army 3 tonner played a major part in winning the war with 72,000 of this rock solid reliable model alone being built along with 170,000 other wartime trucks by Bedford .

Thanks for sorting that out - I stand corrected! By any name they were, as you say" a great truck and being under 21 at the time I was sort of legal!!!

On a different tack , Fred's post of the construction site shows two dozers. The one on the left looks very like the Dinky Super Toys No 961 Blaw Knox model which I think was loosely based on a Cletrac . Or should I have gone to Specksavers?

Hi Angus, I think the dozer in the picture is an international It's too small to be sure what it is.

The "Dinkey" Blaw-Knox dozer was not loosely based on a Cletrac it was a Cletrac. Blaw Knox marketed Cletrac crawlers from the 1930s, I think till the late 40s. Blaw-Knox did however make the dozing equipment for them. They made blades, winches and scraper boxes for almost every other crawler including Cat and IH too. I used to run a 50ITD David Brown with a Blaw Knox blade.

Talking Blaw-Knox, the Navvy loading the Fordson 7V tipper in the third pic. in my earlier post is a Blaw-Knox BK50. I worked on one when Yorkshire based William Pepper Co., who I worked for, sent one down to South Wales circa1962/3. The NCB and British Rail were running them here at the time too.